Professor Stephen Cairns

Stephen Cairns completed an undergraduate degree in anthropology and classical studies at the University of Otago and trained in architecture at the University of Auckland. He has practiced as an architect in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific, designing the award-winning Headquarters for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Noumea. He subsequently undertook doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne.

Stephen has held senior academic positions at the University of Melbourne, and University of Edinburgh, where he rose to Director of the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. He is currently based in Singapore where he his Programme Director of the Future Cities Laboratory. Stephen Cairns’ research is focused on architecture, design and urban planning, and takes theoretical and practical forms.